Lane Kiffin: Alabama’s top three RBs rival NFL backfields from a talent perspective

Posted by Mike Wilkening on May 30, 2014, 1:28 PM EDT

AP

As former Oakland Raiders, Tennessee and USC head coach Lane Kiffin enters his first season as Alabama’s offensive coordinator, he has the luxury of working with a talented and experienced backfield.

Alabama’s top three rushers from a season ago — T.J. Yeldon, Derrick Henry and Kenyan Drake — are back for 2014. And Kiffin, for his part, reportedly believes the trio can be special, as he told an audience at a college football preview banquet in Mobile, Alabama on Thursday.

“There probably aren’t three more talented tailbacks in the NFL on a roster than we’re fortunate to be able to work with at Alabama,” Kiffin said at the Dex Imaging L’Arche Football Preview on Thursday, according to Mike Herndon of Al.com.

Kiffin’s high regard for Yeldon, Henry and Drake’s skill is notable, and it is flattering, given his work with high-level collegiate talent and his NFL experience. Should all three backs make the NFL and succeed, Kiffin’s words will have held up well — and he, along with Alabama’s other staff and the players themselves — will have put the work needed to develop those gifts. For now, though, it is just preseason praise, words that figure to please Alabama fans.

I thought maybe I was being a little harsh on the guy. Based on other posts I have read, I am feeling pretty good about my original post on this story.
If I had a son who was being recruited to play college football, this would be the one guy who would show up at my door and I would say “Oh no way in Hell!”